


ironclad

by rowdyhomo



Series: the world is not enough [1]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, BAMF Kamiki Izumo, BAMF Women, Blood and Violence, Gen, Izumo is Terrifying, Women Being Awesome, slightly liberal hcs about how izumo's heritage works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 00:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12995817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowdyhomo/pseuds/rowdyhomo
Summary: izumo's arms are too short to box with god--yukio is significantly closer.(once again. chapter 96 spoilers.)





	ironclad

The moment Rin bursts back into the room after his jaunt to who-knows-where, spewing nonsense about going against the Order when he’s only just gotten a stay of execution a month or so ago, Izumo knows something is going to go wrong. It’s obvious in everyone’s expression, even as they quickly cobble together a plan—Rin cries, because of course he does, thanking them profusely, and Izumo sighs exasperatedly, because did he seriously expect them to let him go alone? They are a team, _comrades_ —that they sense it too. Izumo says nothing, however, only buckles down and prepares for the worst. There’s no use in pondering what if’s with their plan already as flimsy as it is. There’s no room for hesitation. For regardless of how they all feel, they’ll stand behind Rin. It’s all or nothing for them and nothing isn’t even an option. Not even a thought in any of their heads when comes to supporting one of their own.

Their plan goes smoothly, too smoothly, and Izumo thinks the only reason it works at all is due to exorcists worldwide being stretched too thin. There’s explosions, and gas, and Amaimon, and the floor shakes and shakes beneath them as the latter goes off script. Izumo ignores that. The exorcists guards are unconscious and, as far as she can tell, Yukio’s cell is empty. Part two is already starting then, she thinks, pulling Shiemi after her to Suguro and Konekomaru so they can make their escape. Izumo follows her fellow exwires to the roof, crouches with them at the end of the walkway, and watches as Rin and Yukio seem to argue.

Yukio raises his gun.

Izumo hears Suguro curse, Konekomaru and Shiemi crying out in wonder and disbelief. She can tell by their hesitance that they feel the action is empty. For them, it has to be, they can't stand the idea that someone they trust would _betray_. Izumo knows better. She’s no fool. No stranger to this hurt. Her instincts are screaming and Yukio’s expression—it’s the same one her mother wore that night right before she tried to gut Izumo. This is not a bluff. This threat is real.

Her body moves before she can fully register it. Legs snap forward, eating ground faster than her thoughts, propelling herself several feet before her mind settles on her actions. Two thoughts of ‘ _move_ ’ and ‘ _protect_ ’ driving her forward across the walkway like a speeding bullet.

Amaimon drops in front of her before she makes it any further. She doesn’t even spare him a thought. Simply shifts her weight and leaps, spinning around him to land on the railing. A small corner of her mind giggles madly at the small amount of shock on his face. Really, did he expect his measly presence to stop her? The gods themselves could not hold her back now. Now, as she calculates the remaining distance between herself and Rin and judges it as within her powers to close, because it has to be, because Yukio’s finger is tensing, and she has to _be there_ before something invaluable is irreparably _shattered_. Her legs bunch then extend, sending her over Rin’s head in a chorus of his surprise. Her knees are already coming up again, bent to cushion her landing, as she comes between Rin and Yukio. Her arrival is heralded by a cracking **_B A N G_**.

Pain like wet fire tears through Izumo’s side, just before she lands. It steals her breath but Izumo refuses to stumble. Even as the jolt of her feet striking the ground makes her want nothing but to crumple. She skids. Yukio eyes blow wide in disbelief. That’s fine. Izumo knows her own power, she doesn’t need anyone’s faith, least of all his. Screaming behind her and red spattering the snow around her, Izumo takes a step forward, plants her right foot, clenches her left fist, and _pivots_ with everything she has.

A crunch. Her knuckles but his nose and the arch of his cheekbone. For he may be a newly awakened half-demon child of Satan but she is a _god-child_ weilding unbending will.

His glasses fly with the force of the hit. They land with a anticlimactically soft sound in the snow.

Agony reverberates from the blow, down her arm to lance through her side. Izumo gasps with it, inhales deep, and barely keeps her feet while Yukio crashes to the ground. She’s nearly bent double as she presses a hand to the hole in her side, but she is standing and he isn’t. Izumo bares her bloody teeth in vicious triumph.

Izumo’s strength starts to seep from her, then. Like a plug has been pulled, draining her faster than the warmth between her fingers—and _no_ , she is not done. Not _yet_. Another aching breath, another staggering stride forward, and her free hand grasps Yukio’s collar before she yanks him up. It burns, it hurts, her arm shakes, _Izumo_ shakes, and when it looks like Yukio might try and pry her arm off she shakes him too.

“You listen here you fucking shit-faced coward!” she spits. _Snarls_. “You do whatever the hell you want to ruin your own life but if you ever..."

Izumo shakes him again, and she’s never been able to read his face normally, let alone bruised, misshapen, and leaking blood as it is, but she thinks that might be fear edging his expression. She glares over at Shima to let him know this speech is for him, as well, and sends a heated glance towards the too-bright helicopter for good measure.

“... _any_ of you ever try to harm Rin again, ever try to hurt any of _my family_ again, I _swear_ there won’t be enough ashes left of you to bury.”

Izumo's gasping now. Full to the brim of too much rage, too much pain, and not enough air. Her body one big, aching thing, as she shoves Yukio away from her, from Rin, pushing him over to the side he so clearly chose the moment he raised his gun. He stumbles back, falls once more, as Izumo stares him down, red on blue—blue like fire, like Rin, except there is no warmth there, only bitter cold. She feels light headed, frozen except for the spot of fire in her abdomen. There’s words—noises all around her she can’t parse. Her head spins, her stomach lurches, and black edges her vision. She feels herself sway as she peels her sticky hand from her wound, before raising it high, clenching it into a gory fist.

Grinning an even bloodier grin, Izumo declares, voice barely a wet rasp, “I _swear it_ on Inari’s blessing.”

Something sears across her palm before her words even end. Everything is hazy, now. She can feel her arm fall, her knees hit the snow, her strength is _gone_ , and something burning like home, warm like anguish, and blueblueblue engulfs—embraces—her.

Izumo laments the fact Rin will be terribly upset with her for her words—

Nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> why is swearing on 'inari's blessing' important? izumo's line got their spiritual powers from intermarriage to a messenger of inari (hence 'god-child'). inari's blessing is what allows them to have those powers (based, presumably, on the fact that when mike and uke were 'killed', izumo lost this blessing and had been abandoned by inari according to gedouin, which is why she couldn't stand possession by the nine-tails. essentially, by swearing on this and her blood (making the fist with her blood), izumo is making a promise she can't back out of. it also may or may not give her a bit of a boost, bc inari is probably most definitely about revenge things considering they're represented as a fox which are mostly tricksters in japanese mythology.
> 
> also, yes, i know next to nothing about japanese mythology--sue me.


End file.
